This is our third in a series of articles on the above subject. In the two previous articles, we noted that despite the lapse of 13 years, the constitutionally-mandated Procurement Commission has not been established, and several key provisions of the Procurement Act have been honoured in the breach. We discussed two of these, namely placing no restrictions on invitations to bid on the basis of nationality; and ensuring the criteria used for selection are such that they do not discriminate against particular contractors and suppliers.
Today, we continue our discussion of the remaining areas identified in these articles.
Lowest Evaluated Bid versus Lowest Bid
Section 36 of the Procurement Act provides for all evaluation criteria outlined in the tender documents for the procurement of goods, works and services, in addition to price, to be quantified in monetary terms. The Evaluation Committee is required to use only these evaluation criteria to determine which tenderer has submitted the lowest evaluated bid. It therefore does